Love is a Flower
by Kitten Kisses
Summary: FE7. A collection of oneshots with one theme in common...flowers. Various pairings, character interactions, and friendships. Part Two of Thirty: Easter Lily, with Guy and Florina.
1. Chapter 1

**Love is a Flower  
By: Manna**

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**Note:** This 'fic is a collection of one-shot stories compiled together with one common theme in mind—flowers. There will be a lot of different pairings, as there will be 30 chapters in all. Done (unofficially) for the 30-Flowers community on LiveJournal. I may or may not stick to their themes, because they're missing a lot of my favorite flowers, and their meanings don't always match up right.

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**I- Daisies (Gentleness, Innocence):**** Nino, Sonia, and Brendan**

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**xOx**

A child's trust was bigger than she had ever thought possible. She loathed the mere thought of a child in her presence, but on direct orders, she had been given no choice but to raise one herself; a little girl, who had, as the years went on, developed a head full of forest-colored hair and curious blue eyes. She could remember holding an infant, looking at the smiling, incoherently-babbling grin that covered her mouth…and she felt nothing.

And five years later, the infant was still babbling incoherently…though she was admittedly a lot bigger, and her words more clear. She still did not feel anything when she saw her, no matter how long she looked.

_Should I be?_

She asked herself the question almost daily. Some days, she would have to go out, and the child, Nino, would be with her. She would see other mothers with their children, and how they smiled and laughed…and she couldn't help but wonder about it, herself. Instead of what these silly people called love and joy, she only felt a touch of something she could not identify, save for perhaps annoyance.

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**xOx**

She laughed loudly. "Mother, what is this bug doing?" On her hands and knees, she poked her tongue out of the corner of her mouth and watched a spider spinning a web of fine silk around a fly that had been caught in its web.

They were waiting for someone- that was all she knew. Waiting, and waiting…and the field that they had been standing in had far too many interesting things going on for her to sit still. The grass was warm from the sunlight that had been pounding on them mercilessly all day, and little Nino had given in to the childish desire to explore.

When her mother didn't answer, she shrugged and continued to crawl through the long grass in the meadow that they were occupying, fascinated with the different species of plants and animals. "Ohh!" she exclaimed in childish delight. "Mother, look at _these_!"

Her mother was not paying her any attention, but she did not seem to mind, instead staring at a pretty flower with wide eyes. It was then that she noticed many other flowers like it scattered throughout the long, overgrown grass. Jumping to her feet, she smiled widely and ran about gaily, gathering as many of the flower as she could.

When at last her arms were filled with crudely snapped-off blossoms, she sat breathlessly in the grass near her mother, cheeks flushed with happiness and exhaustion. Twirling the flower around in her hand, she gazed at it for a moment before fingering the soft white petals. "Aren't they _pretty_?" she asked softly, not fully expecting an answer, but still hoping for one.

Quickly, she poked the stem of the daisy behind her ear, the gentle white and yellow coloring of the flower an interesting contrast to the green of her hair. She smiled to herself and began to amuse herself with her flowers, making a sloppy attempt at creating a daisy chain.

Suddenly, her mother was pulling at her to get up. "Come, Nino," she said.

"No, I'm not done!" Tears quickly filled her wide blue eyes as she struggled to hold onto her armful of beauty, a few of the flowers falling to the ground as she was hauled to her feet.

"They are irrelevant." She tugged on Nino's sleeve, almost as if she didn't want to touch her at all, and hurriedly walked away, her feet pointed towards town.

"But _Mother_!"

_Mother_ didn't answer, and Nino lost her flowers as they fell from her arms, scattering across the grass.

The warm sun quickly dried her tears, and she remembered the flower she still had tucked behind her ear as she hurried to keep up with her mother's long steps.

"Oh, _Brendan, _I am glad you could make it!"

A large man stood in front of her, and she squinted up at him as the sunlight glared into her eyes. His face was scarred, and his eyes tired, but he had a softness about him that her five-year-old mind simply could not explain.

After he had given her mother a hug, he turned to her and smiled. "You are Nino?" he asked, and she nodded energetically as he crouched down next to her.

"Yes!"

He pattered her on the head with surprising gentleness, considering his size, and he touched the flower that was tucked behind her ear. "You are fond of flowers…" he said softly, his tone wistful. After a moment, he shook his head and gave her shoulder a squeeze. "You are a beautiful young lady, Nino… just like your mother."

Nino grinned.

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**Author Notes:**

Okay, what the heck, you ask? Well… I know it isn't completely coherent, and probably doesn't make a lot of sense. It's not really supposed to. Sonia's point of view in the beginning was to (hopefully) make you sympathize with her just a little bit. You can still hate her, though. She's not a likeable character. I think Brendan was probably a nice guy before and for a while after he met Sonia. To a young girl, being compared in a good way to her mother is a compliment. (That changes when we get older, haha.) I really wanted to portray Brendan as being a good guy, here. I think that Nino might have loved him as a father… though I'm not entirely sure.

The title is from the song, "The Rose", sung by so many, and yet known by so few. I almost stuck with the line "I Say Love is a Flower", but I decided to stick with what you see.

Thoughts and opinions, as well as constructive criticism are, of course, very much appreciated! Thanks for reading! I'll try my best to update this weekly.


	2. Daisies

**Love is a Flower  
By: Manna

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**

**…-…-…**

**II- Easter Lily, November Lily (Purity, Sweetness, Coquetry): Florina and Guy**

Rain fell gently against the leaves of the tree she was standing under, and the drops hung there for a moment before plummeting towards the earth, landing on the back of a large white equine. The pegasus snorted, staring down his long muzzle at the wet fur for a moment before shaking his head roughly.

"Oh, Huey…" A young girl smiled from where she sat by her faithful steed, protected from the rain by a large white wing. "You're so silly!"

She absently patted Huey's neck as she looked into the distance at the grey sky. There were far too many people in their army to be able to afford an inn, let alone the amount of rooms they would need. But that didn't phase her in the slightest- being out in the open like she was reminded her of what she had come to call "the good old days", back when she and her very best friend, Lyndis, had spent time on the plains of Sacae together. Sighing a little to herself, she looked at Huey and forced a smile to her lips.

In the end, she thought, everything would turn out fine. Lords Eliwood and Hector would return to their respective nations and rule justly until the end of their lives. Lyn would spend her grandfather's final days with him, and then go back to the plains of Sacae. And she…

Well, she hadn't quite decided. She would always have a place in Caelin's military—Kent had assured her of that. But she thought perhaps she preferred mercenary work. She had a little time to decide. They were still ten days from the Lycian Split, where the road branched and headed toward the various cantons.

Those from Bern and Etruria had already taken their leave. Fiora had headed back to Ilia. Farina was going to Ostia.

Florina knew she wasn't the only indecisive member of the group. Wil hadn't decided if he wanted to go home or spend more time in Caelin. Sain was itching for mercenary work in Ilia. (He claimed he found it more to his taste than military drills, but everyone knew that wasn't the entire truth.)

Footsteps on the grass caught her attention, and she looked up to see Guy approaching her. The two of them had struck up something resembling a friendship—an awkward, relatively quiet one.

He smiled and shook some of the water from his bangs. "Hello," he said in greeting, and pointed to the space beside her that was unoccupied. "C-Can I…?"

"Sure," she answered, scooting over a little bit to allow him some of the dry ground beneath her pegasus's wing.

"S-So, uhm…" He looked down at the grass. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know."

A fleeting smile passed over his lips. "I don't, either. Not everyone's as lucky as us. We can take our pick of militaries."

Florina thought for a moment. "You're right," she said. "I hadn't thought of that."

He looked hesitant to speak, but finally he did, breaking the silence. "Lord Eliwood said I could work for Pherae, but I just don't know 'bout all those drills and stuff. I saw Sir Marcus training Lowen and…no thanks."

She muffled a giggle under her fingers, but turned to smile at him, her cheeks a little red. "Sir Kent is not nearly so scary," she assured him. "But… I am not so s-sure I want to return to Caelin…"

"Military not what you're looking for?"

"W-Well… I would be going because it is where Lady Lyn is, not so much because I want to serve Caelin."

"Oh, Lady Lyn!" he said, eyes brightening. "I wish I had gotten to speak with her more. She's very nice."

"She is…"

"So…" He looked away. And then back at her, eyebrows knitted together thoughtfully. "I thought about going back to mercenary work."

"N-No morning drills if you pick that."

"Yeah, that'd be nice."

"I could…"

"Could?"

"Never mind, it's silly." She blushed and tangled her fingers in Huey's mane.

"N-No, tell me! I'll listen."

"Uhm, okay. I could—if it wouldn't be a bother to you, t-that is—maybe—but only if you're absolutely certain it'd be okay—do mercenary work…" She had squeezed her eyes shut out of embarrassment halfway through but opened them again, her teeth closing down on a fingernail. "W-With you, I mean. But only if it's okay."

"With me?" He looked surprised.

"Sorry…"

"N-No!" His eyes brightened as he got to his feet. "Don't be sorry at all! I mean, going it alone is never any fun at all! And we could look out for one another. A-And…oh! I'll bet there are others who will be going out to do mercenary work. Maybe we could start our own little group…"

Florina smiled a little as he babbled. Maybe it _would_ be a good idea to make a little group. She'd heard Raven—as odd as she thought the man was, he was good at what he did—had done mercenary work before, and…surely there were others that wouldn't want to strike out on their own to try and make a living.

"I'm sure the villages near Sacae's borders would pay well enough for some protection against bandits," he continued on to say. "And I wonder if Geitz…"

"Okay," she said, halting his speech with a light touch to his arm. "L-Let's try and come up with others who might like to join… And then we can ask them ourselves."

"Oh, good idea! Okay, uhm…"

She couldn't help but smile as she watched him think. He was so nice and patient…it was sometimes hard to believe he would be a dangerous opponent on the battlefield. But, she supposed, the same could be said about her. What a pair they'd make. His enthusiasm was contagious, and before she knew it, she was throwing out the names of the unattached members of their group, adding to the list of people they could ask to join them.

Yeah, she thought as the drizzling stopped and the setting sun managed to peek out from behind the clouds, everything would turn out just fine.

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**…-…-…**

**Author Notes:**

Shh, this is totally canon. If I was more adventurous, I'd write a whole 'fic about Florina and Guy (and company) as a mercenary band. Don't. Tempt. Me.


End file.
